Heritage Bank appoints new Chief Risk Officer

Heritage Bank has today announced the appointment of Ms Kerry Beebe to the newly created role of Chief Risk Officer (CRO).

Ms Beebe comes to Heritage with 30 years’ experience in the financial industry in Australia, Canada and the United States. She has worked with major banks Westpac and NAB, with State Government departments and broker aggregators, and in non-bank lending roles.

Most recently she was Regional Chief Risk Officer (CRO) of North America for Computershare.

Heritage Bank CEO Mr Peter Lock said Ms Beebe’s appointment was a major addition to the bank’s senior management team

“Heritage is placing an increasing emphasis on managing risk as an essential enabler of our business,” he said.

“We have created the CRO role as a stand-alone position, and added it to our Senior Executive Group, as an indication of the importance we place on the risk function.

“I am delighted to welcome a risk executive of Kerry’s calibre to Heritage. Her extensive experience in risk, compliance and internal audit will add significantly to our capability in this increasingly important area of our business.”

Ms Beebe said she looked forward to leading the risk function to help Heritage shine above its competitors.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Heritage Bank,” Ms Beebe said.

“What attracted me about Heritage was its community focus as a customer-owned institution, the courage to change that is evident, and the vision of the organisation to become the ‘Best Bank’ possible.”

Ms Beebe is based in Heritage’s Toowoomba Head Office and took up the role on 5 June.